Apple - New Phone and Tablet

miir · Post by **miir** » February 23, 2012, 6:26 pm

The same thing happened to my 2nd (4th gen) ipod touch a few months back.
But this week after my 5th or 6th 'itunes cannot read the contents of this ipod' bullshit, reset to factory default, reload fucking everything.... I'm pretty much done with apple 'i' products.

I agree, the customer service is actually pretty damn good... hell, quite a few of the staff in the Toronto Eaton Centre Apple Store know me by name (they are all really nice!) because I seem to spend so much fucking time in there getting my devices repaired or replaced.

Ordered a Sony Z 32 gig portable media player this week.
It's got an amazing screen, way better sound quality and some really cool interface apps I can use with my TV, PS3, Vita and PSP.

Hopefully it's as reliable as all my other Sony products and not a piece of shit like the 3 ipod touch's I had to suffer through.
I just can't wait to be free of fucking itunes.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » February 23, 2012, 7:11 pm

iProducts do amazingly well for how sucky they are!

No issues here. Could be user error. It's possible Canadian meat hands are too harsh on the Home buttons or the products can't handle extreme tundra conditions.

Apple customer service is great. When my first iPhone 4 had some yellowish tint spots, I brought it in without an appointment and had a new one withing minutes with my contacts transferred over, no fight from the customer service at all or deflections like asking for me to wait for the glue to dry etc, they just replaced it. This is when there was a multi week backlog to get a new phone. They had set aside replacements as a good company should.

I wouldn't take the level of service for granted. It's most likely not going to happen with another company or be nearly as fast.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » February 23, 2012, 7:56 pm

I was having the "cannot sync" issues a few months ago. Turned out that the cable I was using had gone bad. Replacing it has led to no more issues with either touch I use.

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » February 23, 2012, 8:35 pm

You'd think with such pricey products, they could do better than their flimsy, sweatshop-manufactured 3 foot charging cable...

Of course, you can buy any length of USB extension cable from Amazon to solve the length issue, but it still doesn't prevent the Apple McCable from eventually falling apart.

Luckily, Android continues to get better (Love my ASUS eee Pad). If some manufacturer can get the hardware right for phones, it will be much more cost-effective for those of us that don't have much of a gadget budget anymore.

And iTunes can still suck it.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » February 29, 2012, 11:11 am

The next iPad!

http://www.cultofmac.com/149403/this-fu ... ind-video/

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » February 29, 2012, 12:33 pm

Canelek wrote:And iTunes can still suck it.

Offered the choice of a free iPod plus some other crap or a kind-of-not-so-good (but functional) autoguiding telescope I took the telescope.

Due to cables, iTunes and Quicktime.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » February 29, 2012, 1:18 pm

Windows 8 looks pretty cool:

http://gizmodo.com/5889001/windows-8-co ... going-back

Way better than that Android crap. Looks like Apple has some legit competition. Microsoft is developing a version of Windows 8 for Arm processors. It will get interesting if they make it installable on iPads.

edit: more impressions

http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/29/micr ... pressions/

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » February 29, 2012, 1:48 pm

Looks like Ubuntu?

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » March 7, 2012, 4:33 pm

iPad 2012:

Solid entry. Incremental updates across the board through all the components. They could easily skip next year at the speed others are catching up with this particular spec.

LTE, Double resolution, iPhone cameras and the same price. Good deal.

If I understand this right though, it's slightly heavier and thicker than the iPad 2 but with what's in there, that's a good tradeoff.

Fairweather Pure · Post by **Fairweather Pure** » March 7, 2012, 7:31 pm

It looks like a solid upgrade indeed, but no reason for me to upgrade my iPad2. I'll likely wait another year and get 2 at that time if the improvements keep on being significant.

I am going to get 2 Apple TVs though. The jump to 1080p was what I was waiting for. While I can and do stream to my xboxs and ps3 from my PC, the experience is clunky and lackluster on those devices compared to Apple TV.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 7, 2012, 7:55 pm

Ordered White 64GB WiFi version, free shipping, will be delivered to my home the day of release, March 16th. I could live with 32 GBs but I do sometimes fill up 32 when I have a lot of comics and magazines loaded. Since this looks like it might be worthy of 2 years instead of 1 for the last two, I figured I'd go with the 64GB.

It was a bitch getting my order in. Took two hours of pounding away at the Apple Store. I finally made it through but had to refresh and then it added a second iPad to my order (2 is the limit) and then I ended up with 3 iPads in my order. Took forever to edit that, eventually the servers reset and I reordered the single iPad. I think sales are going well. I'm just glad I don't have to sit in line at a store.

For me, the most important upgrade was the 2,048 x 1,536 resolution display. I read a lot of comics and magazines that are scanned at high resolutions which will make reading the text a lot easier. Boosted quad core CPU doesn't hurt either. Same battery life. 10 hours on Wifi, 9 on LTE if you decide to get one with that option.

You can watch the keynote here:

http://www.apple.com/apple-events/march-2012/

Chidoro · Post by **Chidoro** » March 9, 2012, 1:20 pm

Wife has been not-so-subtly hinting at getting an iPad for a few months now. She wants to get shit done on the computer but can’t since I’m always hogging it. While she sort-of has a point, it seems like an expensive proposition. The screen is a massive improvement though and said it would be OK. So at some point this year we will have one. I still think it’s a vanity item that really doesn’t do anything productive but I do, unsurprisingly, hog the pc and her iphone screen is pretty damn small for what she really wants to use it for. Now its whether to 4g or not to 4g. have a few months to decide that though.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 9, 2012, 1:30 pm

Chidoro wrote:Wife has been not-so-subtly hinting at getting an iPad for a few months now. She wants to get shit done on the computer but can’t since I’m always hogging it. While she sort-of has a point, it seems like an expensive proposition. The screen is a massive improvement though and said it would be OK. So at some point this year we will have one. I still think it’s a vanity item that really doesn’t do anything productive but I do, unsurprisingly, hog the pc and her iphone screen is pretty damn small for what she really wants to use it for. Now its whether to 4g or not to 4g. have a few months to decide that though.

You'll find it gets used a hell of a lot. It's ok for light data entry and work. It's flat out awesome for consumption. Report back after you've had it for about a month on how much your wife uses/likes it.

Biggest negative I can think of against the iPad 1/2 was the screen for reading but now with the retina display it becomes a positive of the device. One more week and I'll have mine!

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » March 9, 2012, 3:16 pm

My sister snagged one of the Acer android tablets over the holidays. She works from home and has used it to "unplug" from her desk as much as possible.

Siji · Post by **Siji** » March 9, 2012, 7:33 pm

Chidoro wrote:Wife has been not-so-subtly hinting at getting an iPad for a few months now. She wants to get shit done on the computer but can’t since I’m always hogging it. While she sort-of has a point, it seems like an expensive proposition. The screen is a massive improvement though and said it would be OK. So at some point this year we will have one. I still think it’s a vanity item that really doesn’t do anything productive but I do, unsurprisingly, hog the pc and her iphone screen is pretty damn small for what she really wants to use it for. Now its whether to 4g or not to 4g. have a few months to decide that though.

If she wants a computer, get a computer. You can get a faster, infinitely more useful and upgradable laptop for less than the price of an ipad.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 9, 2012, 8:41 pm

Siji wrote:
If she wants a computer, get a computer. You can get a faster, infinitely more useful and upgradable laptop for less than the price of an ipad.

Did you miss:

Wife has been not-so-subtly hinting at getting an iPad for a few months now.

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » March 10, 2012, 8:08 am

Winnow wrote:You'll find it gets used a hell of a lot. It's ok for light data entry and work. It's flat out awesome for consumption.

I use mine all the time, the tablet form factor is great. For anything past a trivial amount of typing including IM & whatever you want a keyboard.

Ongoing conversation at work, the consensus is it's an add-on device, many people who want a tablet actually need a netbook\notebook based on use. Sucking up a crappy user experience to have the tablet form factor.

Something equivalent to this seems a good compromise. http://www.asus.com/Eee/Eee_Pad/Eee_Pad ... mer_TF101/ All the iSnobs at the office would look down on you though.

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » March 10, 2012, 6:05 pm

I don't have the KB dock, but

my Asus.

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » March 11, 2012, 9:59 am

Since I've gotten Android running well on my Touchpad and now that Netflix works, I've been using it a LOT more. Hell, I typed this from it.

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » March 11, 2012, 8:42 pm

That almost makes me want to load android on mine

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » March 12, 2012, 10:50 am

I hope you have a good case for it. Mine's started to develop cracks on the side/back becasue of the cheap plastic. All around holes for the speakers, the microphone and anywhere else the plastic was cut.

Chidoro · Post by **Chidoro** » March 12, 2012, 3:19 pm

Winnow wrote:
Siji wrote:
If she wants a computer, get a computer. You can get a faster, infinitely more useful and upgradable laptop for less than the price of an ipad.
Did you miss:

Wife has been not-so-subtly hinting at getting an iPad for a few months now.

Yep. Wanting and needing <> each other.
If the situation was reversed, I'd get a laptop, no question. The ultra books popping up these days are cool as hell imo.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 12, 2012, 3:48 pm

Chidoro wrote: Yep. Wanting and needing <> each other.
If the situation was reversed, I'd get a laptop, no question. The ultra books popping up these days are cool as hell imo.

People that have seen the new iPads screen are saying it's the best screen they've seen on any device/size. I'm betting it looks pretty amazing. Besides the jam packed pixels, they also have some new tech to help with the high density pixels to prevent bleeding or some such.

Some uses for the new screen:

New iPad's HD display: The future of killer mobile visualization

By Jason Perlow | March 9, 2012, 8:14pm PST

Summary: The High-Definition QXGA “Retina” display on the new 3rd-generation iPad will usher in a new generation of sophisticated mobile visualization apps.

The new iPad is here, and legions of consumers are ready to line up to purchase one as soon as it goes on sale on March 16th. The new tablet’s ability to render super-crisp fonts, high-resolution graphics as well as play HD video content is going to be the device’s main draw for the majority of the buying public.

But what about applications for the device in business and vertical markets?

The new iPad is unique in that the display that the device is equipped with has an even greater pixel density than any high-end 17″ laptop computer currently on the market or even the 1080p (1920×1080) widescreen displays used on graphical workstations for creative content design.

This bests even the HD television in your living room, when playing Blu-Ray DVDs or on-demand 1080p content. Broadcast television in the United States is limited to 1080i (interlaced) or the more common 720p resolution.

In fact, the only computer displays that exceed the QXGA 2048×1536 9.7″ Retina on the new iPad are extremely expensive, $1000+ large 27″ and higher 16×9 displays as well as Apple’s own “Thunderbolt” and Cinema Displays which have 2560×1440 resolutions.

Also Read: iPad’s display is cutting edge and a challenge for manufacturers (CNET)

Anything higher than that, and you get into the super-exotic “4K” (2160p) projector and medical diagnostic/engineering monitor territory, and those cost tens of thousands of dollars if not more. And the only people messing with those are either the super-rich hollywood types with actual theatrical-class media rooms, scientific and medical researchers, CGI FX companies like ILM, PIXAR and Weta or aerospace firms like Boeing.

Let’s face it though, these super high-res display units were never designed to be equipped on a mobile device. But now we have a $500.00 9.5″ 1.5lb tablet computer which is very much capable of showing extremely detailed graphical content that could only be imagined in science-fiction movies only a few years ago and was limited to desk-bound and highly specialized types of apps.

So what exactly can you do with the new iPad screen, then?

It opens up a whole new class of applications for highly detailed mobile visualization that weren’t possible before.

The first thing that comes to mind is medical imaging, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and X-ray computed tomography (CAT) type of 3D visualizations which could permit a doctor, say, with a specialized skill set, to remotely diagnose a patient undergoing scans at a far-away hospital.

It could also be used to make field diagnosis of certain conditions possible that were not doable previously, such as acting as a display fo detailed medical ultrasonagraphy, or used in conjunction with HD fiberoptic cameras for internal medicine (colonoscopies, neurosurgery, heart surgery) or even dentistry.

Medical students who don’t have access to high-end visualization desktops will now be able to use the iPad for anatomical education as well. The potential for use of the device in higher education disciplines where visualization needs are in high demand is staggering.

Beyond medicine, there are field applications for forensics and archeology, where the iPad could be used in conjunction with extremely high-resolution cameras to review detailed photographs of a crime scene or a dig site.

Mobile aerospace CAD/CAM is an obvious application, particularly in the military where detailed schematics for aircraft and other complex mechanical diagrams and visualizations are required. Similarly, the device could be also be applied to architectural design and engineering as well as structural mechanics and ergonomics.

The iPad could also be used to review very high-resolution satellite and aircraft imagery in civilian geospatial applications (such as Google Earth or a GIS) or even for military reconnaissance purposes where viewing real-time imagery might be required.

The petroleum and natural gas industry, as well as others working in the various geoscience disciplines (Vulcanology, Seismology, Geophysics) make heavy usage of geologic data modeling using supercomputer clusters. iPads could be used in the field to review this data instead of heavy workstation-class laptops.

In addition to looking at detailed images of things on (and under) the ground, the iPad could also be used by astronomers to review detailed images from ground and space-based telescopes, from anywhere in the world.

Besides the medical, earth, aerospace, engineering and astronomical sciences, there is of course the need to visualize data in high-energy physics, such as in the experiments that are being done at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. Instead of needing a big desktop or laptop display, a physicist can now review the output of those experiments anywhere.

There may also be a need for advanced mobile data visualization technology in the IT disciplines of Big Data, data mining, business analytics and business intelligence, although nobody has come up with a compelling need for apps to take advantage of such high resolutions yet.

Still, that doesn’t mean that when the device is put into the hands of developers we won’t see them, however.

Some of these applications may be able to make use of the localized dual-core/quad GPU A5x and run natively on the device, but it’s likely that the new iPad and its successors may have to act as a smart terminal/thin client where rendering and processing actually occurs on the server side or in the cloud.

One of the ways this can be made possible is through VDI applications using server-based GPUs. Currently, the only way you can implement this is through RemoteFX technology in Microsoft’s Hyper-V, which is built into the Windows 2008 R2 Server OS and will be improved for longer network latencies in the upcoming Windows Server 8.

Also Read: Is Microsoft’s Windows Server 8 Finally Ready to Compete with VMware?

Presumably, server-side GPU rendering will come to other OSes and hypervisor stacks that employ VDI technology, such as Linux’s KVM and Redhat’s RHEV for desktops using their open source SPICE protocol, as well as VMware View. But you can guarantee Microsoft and Windows developers will get there first, because their server OS already supports it.

This also begs the question of whether the other tablet players are going to be able to get these types of displays on competing devices (Android, Windows 8 ARM tablets) anytime soon or affordably or in volume.

There has been some recent announcements of forthcoming 1080p (1920×1080) devices running on Android, such as the quad-core Asus Transformer Infinity Pad 700 and the Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD.

However, Apple has boasted twice the GPU performance of the nVidia Tegra 3 (Kal-El) SoC that many of these devices will be based on, and we have no idea what sort of battery technology and life the new generation competing Android and Windows tablets are going to have, and there’s no word on prices or availability yet.

Still, you can bet that any sort of very high-res mobile apps, whether they are true mobile or client-server in design are going to appear on the new iPad first, and developers will be rushing to get their existing HD desktop-based applications on iOS well before they get seen on Android and certainly Windows on ARM.

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » March 12, 2012, 4:58 pm

No problems yet, have an Acase folio for it.

Siji · Post by **Siji** » March 13, 2012, 2:59 pm

Winnow wrote:
Siji wrote:
If she wants a computer, get a computer. You can get a faster, infinitely more useful and upgradable laptop for less than the price of an ipad.
Did you miss:

Wife has been not-so-subtly hinting at getting an iPad for a few months now.

Did you miss:

She wants to get shit done on the computer but can’t since I’m always hogging it.

The iPad isn't a computer. It can't do the majority of what a computer can do. It can't do like tasks as a computer, as well as a computer can do. They are different tools. One does not replace the other. If she wants a computer, get a fucking computer.

Fairweather Pure · Post by **Fairweather Pure** » March 13, 2012, 4:48 pm

My wife uses a laptop for work and an ipad for everything else. No more desktops for her, ever. I will only own a desktop and a tablet. No more laptops for me, ever.

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » March 13, 2012, 5:22 pm

Tablets are too small for most work-related tasks. Sure, you can fuck around with Office components or other non-intensive things, but you are limited by OS, applications, screen size and plain ol' utility. Sure, you have some RDP utility, but once again, not the best platform for doing "work".

Great for toilet movies, inturwebs and e-books, unless you like to play handheld video games as well. I think my Asus has HDMI out, so that makes it fairly useful for a small-storage media player. But, other options are better.

Yeah, you can use them for all sorts of shit, but at some point you have to tell yourself that you've exceeded the logical usage of your tablet.

Fairweather Pure · Post by **Fairweather Pure** » March 13, 2012, 5:50 pm

The issue is that the vast majority of people do not need any of the other advantages that a laptop has over a tablet, which is almost all work related. All of the scenerios I read from people who favor laptops, they need laptops. Most people don't.

My iPad is in use 6-10 hours a day for my job (anatomy apps are fantastic!) as well as music, video (local, streaming), books, comics, pdfs, internet browsing, email, youtube, notes, scheduling (bonus autosynch with my phone!), simple gaming, Face Time with friends and family, and I shop Amazon/Ebay/Craigslist all the time using their respective apps. What advantage does a laptop have over that? If those are the everyday computing needs of a user, laptops have huge disadvantages by comparrison. I can't write a college thesis on my iPad? I could, but there is nothing I would do on a laptop that a desktop isn't better equipped to do.

I cannot think of a reason to suggest a laptop over a tablet unless you need one for your job. Frankly, there isn't one. Hell, all the soccer moms I work with don't even need desktops. A tablet will do more than they will ever need. Just my observations!

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » March 13, 2012, 6:09 pm

Sure. And to further carve the comparison up, unless you are so locked in to the brand, where all competitors pale in comparison (Applefan vs real world), why not further the savings by not paying the premium? Sure, that fancy new screen is pretty, but it seems rather overkill unless you plan to use it to view MRIs or other medical-based imaging.

Camera? Meh, should never be a consideration for a non-camera. You can crank out all the megapixels you want, but at the end of the day, there are quite a few other considerations for even a simple P&S camera that a phone or tablet cannot touch (at this time).

Video? Useful for contractors and a few other things, but not an ideal platform for shooting anything other than snippets.

Of course, all of that is thrown out the window if you are a gadget-phile....

Anyway, not bashing the iPad, just offering alternatives as there is enough of a price difference to do some research into what you NEED, and not necessarily cool-sounding features that you will use once, if at all (re: Siri).

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 13, 2012, 7:35 pm

Canelek wrote: I think my Asus has HDMI out, so that makes it fairly useful for a small-storage media player. But, other options are better.

Why do HDMI when you can stream 1080P wirelessly with the new iPad?

I use an app on my iMac called reflection to display exactly whats on my iPad on my iMac screen (you could always do it to a TV using an Apple TV but this app allows streaming to other devices. It looks great and no lag. The new iPad can potentially fill my entire 27" screen (2560x1440 vs iPad's 2048x1536). The new Apple TV can stream 1080P...so who needs that HDMI out crap in a tablet anymore?

New iPad also has Bluetooth 4.0 which will help with peripheral battery life.

I can understand the iPad hate but the trend it making more and more useful and full featured apps for Tablets, not the other way around. Microsoft is hellbent on getting into tablets as well.

Cool comparison between original Apple icon on Mac and current icons for Macs

Did you see the new iPhoto app for iPads and iPhones? It's pretty nice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HKgK6iupls

If you take the time to watch that 10 min video, you'll see how much though they put into the tools and interface, making it awesome for a touch screen.

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » March 13, 2012, 8:41 pm

That's cool about the wireless HD content. I have mixed results, but that is likely due to my router being rather outdated (and PS3 shitty wireless streaming, garbage updater).

And it isn't Apple-hate to the iPad, just the accessories. Also, there are a few really solid options at a much lower price-point that I felt were worth mentioning.

Also, you and Fair are huge gadget-junkies (I am to a point, as well), so likely use features and apps that 95% of the buyers will ever use.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » March 13, 2012, 9:11 pm

I can't think of anything i'd need a tablet or laptop for. So I will save my money.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » March 13, 2012, 9:44 pm

My sister works off of her tablet from home. The android app, or maybe just a google app, that allows use of Office documents was basically all she needed. I've really been thinking about doing something similar in the near future, but that might be for another thread for some android specific questions

Fairweather Pure · Post by **Fairweather Pure** » March 14, 2012, 1:55 am

One of the ways Apple is grabbing me is by having all of these consumer products (iPad, iPhone, Apple TV) work and interact together seamlessly. Update one, the others sync via cloud. Buy an app on one device, it syncs to the others. Take a picture on one device, it is available on all the others. I don't have to do anything. It just works. I'm getting older and I don't want to fuck with my devices all the time. It goes beyond that though. The individual devices play off and with each other in various ways. My iPad can stream movies to my AppleTV. My iphone acts like a remote control for my AppleTV. Furthermore, they all play nice and work well with my PC by streaming media. I literally have no complaints. I sincerely hope Windows 8 is Microsoft's attempt to merge PCs, it's console, and mobile devices into one seamless experience. Apple needs serious competition and MS is one of the few capable and willing to fight them in multiple spaces. I've heard nothing but good about Windows 8 so far. If they gave me a reason to switch from Apple, I would be first in line. However, I'm pretty entrenched in Apple now in terms of apps across all platforms, overall familiarity with their devices, and just how much their products are a part of my daily life. It will take a lot more than parity to make me jump ship. Do you understand where I'm coming from?

miir · Post by **miir** » March 14, 2012, 10:13 am

You know there are a lot of other devices that do exactly the same thing without tying you into an overpriced, locked-down ecosystem.

My Sony devices can do all of what you mentioned and more.

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » March 14, 2012, 2:01 pm

Fairweather Pure wrote:I'm pretty entrenched in Apple now in terms of apps across all platforms, overall familiarity with their devices, and just how much their products are a part of my daily life. It will take a lot more than parity to make me jump ship. Do you understand where I'm coming from?

That's the mark of triumph for their marketing folks.

Doing what I do I couldn't work from any tablet without a keyboard. I'd still need a real computer or a remote desktop session for a lot of things.

When I use my netbook it's mainly because it has a real keyboard. Of course 250Gb of local storage, windoze and standard ports are a big plus too.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 14, 2012, 4:16 pm

Sounds like the Apple haters out there are the ones fooled by propaganda. "Locked down"..."Walled Garden" hehe. That would suck if there was something I actually couldn't do that I wanted to.

First, you can jailbreak iOS devices if you absolutely need something that isn't offered in the protected "walled garden". It's not illegal. You Android freaks constantly talk about rooting devices, etc. That's, at minimum, as much of a pain in the ass as one click jailbreaking an iOS device.

masteen · Post by **masteen** » March 14, 2012, 5:10 pm

We're testing an iPad in the field right now, and so far it's as capable as any laptop for what our guys do. In the office, they link it to a bluetooth keyboard for typing longer entries.

Granted, these are not graphics professionals, but it's a much more usable form factor for people who are on the road all day than any laptop, and an assload lighter than a laptop/tablet deal.

miir · Post by **miir** » March 14, 2012, 5:11 pm

What sort of business?

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 14, 2012, 5:13 pm

masteen wrote:
Granted, these are not graphics professionals, but it's a much more usable form factor for people who are on the road all day than any laptop, and an assload lighter than a laptop/tablet deal.

I imagine the graphics professionals will take more of a liking to the new iPad's display.

masteen · Post by **masteen** » March 14, 2012, 5:16 pm

miir wrote:What sort of business?

Nunya.

Water company. The water must flow!

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » March 14, 2012, 5:37 pm

Wouldn't working with all that water be dangerous?

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » March 14, 2012, 5:45 pm

I thought the water droplets on my new display were super realistic when I first unpacked it, then I realized they were the still-warm tears of the Chinese child who was forced to assemble it.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 14, 2012, 7:25 pm

Turn the iPhone Camera Into a Macro Lens for Free Using a Water Drop

Want a free instant macro lens for your iPhone camera? Carefully apply a tiny drop of water to the lens, flip the iPhone over, and voila, you can suddenly take extreme close ups of just about anything. I know that sounds a little weird, but it works, and the results are fairly impressive.

The drop of water has to be tiny and fit pretty much perfectly on the camera lens, aim for a droplet between 1/4 and 1/2 a centimeter wide, just enough to fit on the lens but not go over its border. You’ll want the droplet to be as circular as possible too, otherwise you’ll end up with strange edge effects. I managed with a finger tip but it’s generally easiest to use the end of a pen or pencil to apply such a tiny water drop.

Here are a few sample images of extreme closeups of a $10 bill and another iPhone screen, taken with a good old iPhone 4 and a water droplet on the lens:

Completing the water themed post arc!

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 14, 2012, 9:13 pm

Some benchmarks from Hong Kong. We'll see more later but if these are true, the third gen iPad has preyty impressive GPU performance pushing a 2048x1536 screen:

GLBenchmark 2.1.1 Egypt

GLBenchmark 2.1.1 PRO

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 14, 2012, 11:28 pm

Ah some real reviews are coming in now that the embargo has lifted. Here's a chart from MacWorld:

Still amazing considering, for a lot of things, the original iPad is still pretty good. Quadruple the pixels yet over ten times the performance of the original. Not bad.

I struggled after the event to put the right words together to describe the display and a week later I’m still lost for the proper analogy. The only thing I can think of that comes close is comparing it to the first time you ever saw an HDTV. Remember how startling it was to go from one of those giant standard definition projector TVs to an HDTV? That’s what this is like.

The Retina display will make you do a double-take the first time you see it. Even on the home screen, it’s crisp and clear — you can notice a huge difference, even from the iPad 2.

Even if you have perfect vision, indulge me here for a second. You know when you go in for an eye exam and you’re asked to look at a combination of letters and numbers on a chart against a far wall? You read the first few lines, then realize you actually can’t go any further. Then you get prescribed glasses (or contacts) and you can all of a sudden read every letter and number. And even the ones you could read before are now so much clearer.

That’s what it’s like looking at the new iPad versus the older iPads.

It’s weird because I was never one of those people who thought the original iPad’s and the iPad 2′s screen was poor (but there were plenty of those people in the post-iPhone Retina world). I guess it’s just like a pre-glasses world — you never realize how blurry things are because that’s just how you’ve always seen everything. And then you put the glasses on and you wonder how you ever managed without them.

Once you see and use the new iPad, there will be no going back.

Yes, this display is outrageous. It's stunning. It's incredible. I'm not being hyperbolic or exaggerative when I say it is easily the most beautiful computer display I have ever looked at. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that you hold this in your hands, or maybe it's the technology that Apple is utilizing, or maybe it's the responsiveness of iOS — but there's something almost bizarre about how good this screen is. After the launch event, I described the screen as "surreal," and I still think that's a pretty good fit.

You literally can't see pixels on the iPad's display when you hold it at a regular distance, and even up close you have to really inspect the thing to see dots. For rendered text or high resolution images, it just looks otherworldly; like a glowing piece of paper. There were moments when I was testing the device when I would just marvel at a single paragraph of text, or I kept zooming in and out on a particular headline to see how cleanly fonts are rendered on this screen.

As with any kind of screen technology, it really is the kind of thing you have to see in person. When you compare the old iPad to the new one, or to any other tablet for that matter, you'll start to wonder how you were ever able to look at anything else. I'm not saying that the screen alone is reason enough to buy this product, especially if you've got a tablet you're happy with right now, but I do think the quality of this display could make you a sudden convert. It's just really, really good.

It has the most spectacular display I have ever seen in a mobile device. The company squeezed four times the pixels into the same physical space as on the iPad 2 and claims the new iPad’s screen has a million more pixels than an HDTV. All I know is that text is much sharper, and photos look richer.

It’s not as if people are complaining about the screens on their iPads, a device so attractive and useful that Apple sold about 55 million of them in two years. But this display is a big leap forward. It’s hard to illustrate on a Web page or in print how brilliant this new display is.

My epiphany came when I placed my iPad 2 next to the new model, with the same text on the screen. Letters and words that had seemed sharp on the older model five minutes earlier suddenly looked fuzzier.

As I tested the new model over five days, I found I was able to use smaller font sizes to read books and email. The same photos I had enjoyed on the older model looked much better on the new one, not only because of the increased resolution, but because Apple claims it increased color saturation by 44%.

A screen to die for. The display becomes your window into all those apps. And the brilliant screen on the new iPad is the thing that will have you salivating.

You're probably thinking the displays on the first iPad and the iPad 2 were pretty sweet, and you'd be right. Watching movies, reading books, surfing the Web, playing games and admiring photos on the older tablets is not an unpleasant experience.

But then you have a look at what Apple calls the "retina display" on the new iPad, technology first applied to recent iPhones, and you're blown away.

Examine the new screen side-by-side with one of its near-10-inch predecessors, and you'll swear you just had Lasik surgery. Text on Web pages or in books is so crisp and sharp that you don't want to go back to reading on an older iPad. Movies and photographs reveal rich detail.

The new iPad’s Retina Display does to the tablet segment what the iPhone 4′s Retina Display did to smartphones: in short, shakes it up entirely.

The level of detail is incredibly impressive; even those with self-professed tech apathy were drawn in by the new iPad’s graphical prowess. Showing a gallery of images in iPhoto, the slate sometimes looks like a mock-up with a printed, high-res image rather than an actual display, it really is that good. Viewing angles are as broad as we’ve come to expect from IPS panels, no matter which direction you’re looking from, and colors are as rich and saturated as AMOLED

I'm imagining this thing is pretty god damn amazing to look at considering how snappy the current iOS is on iPad and iPad 2. With this kind of screen on top of a very significant graphics power boost, it has to be really fun to use.

Chidoro · Post by **Chidoro** » March 15, 2012, 12:48 pm

without seeing it firsthand, I'm sure it's ridiculous based on the resolution. Curious how will movies play? Will apps need to stretch that stuff out and will it look messy as a result?

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 15, 2012, 1:10 pm

Chidoro wrote:without seeing it firsthand, I'm sure it's ridiculous based on the resolution. Curious how will movies play? Will apps need to stretch that stuff out and will it look messy as a result?

Movies will look very good. It has good upscaling abilities. 480P stuff isn't going to look amazing or anything. You can only do so much with low res stuff. I only copied the comments about the screen but a few of the reviews said the 720/1080P stuff looked great. I'll know more tomorrow when I can test it out myself.

Chidoro · Post by **Chidoro** » March 15, 2012, 1:22 pm

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPad-3-4 ... own/8277/1

ifixit is tearing one down

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » March 15, 2012, 3:49 pm

Do you think it is important that a graphics card can display 250 fps in your favourite game, because that's a feature they write about in PC magazines and on covers?
Now this is just a figure to show how fast the card is, not to show that you need such a high frame rate.?

http://www.100fps.com/how_many_frames_c ... ns_see.htm

Kind of cool, not the answer I expected.